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ALAN
HART
BROADCASTER,
WRITER and
Secret Emissary
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AN
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
Alan
Hart in conversation with Publisher Tony Stevens
TS:
Alan, hundreds if not thousands of books have been written about
what is loosely termed the Arab-Israeli conflict, why do you
feel that yours will enable readers - many for the first time
- to have real understanding of what it's all about and how
to stop what you've called the countdown to Armageddon?
AH. The souvenirs I most treasure from my television
reporting days are signed photographs of the two greatest opposites
in all of human history - Golda Meir, Mother Israel, and Yasser
Arafat, Father Palestine. Arafat signed with his "best
wishes". Golda's inscription in her own hand was to Alan
Hart, "a good friend." Because I am a goy (non-Jew),
the old lady's inscription meant, and still means, a great deal
to me. I think I might be the only person on planet Earth to
have enjoyed intimate access to both of them. What I think these
photographs symbolise is my empathy with both sides:
with the unspeakable but real fear of the Jews - that
they could one day be the victims of another holocaust: and
with the anger, humiliation and despair of the
Palestinians (and most Arabs and Moslems everywhere) on account
of the massive injustice that was done to them by Zionism and,
today, U.S. support for Zionism's child, Israel, right or wrong.
The answer to your question is, I think, in my very real empathy
with both sides.
TS:
But surely it takes more than empathy
to stop an Armageddon?
AH. Look - what a resolution of this conflict and permanent
peace has always needed is some truth-telling…Truth-telling
about, for example, how actually this conflict was triggered
and what has sustained it and put peace beyond the reach of
diplomacy. The fact is that throughout the Western (mainly Judeo-Christian)
world, what passes for understanding of the conflict is constructed
on Zionist mythology. The greatest of all of Zionism's myths
being that poor little Israel has lived in danger of annihilation.
That simply is not true, but it has allowed Israel to
get away with having its aggression perceived where it mattes
most (in America and Western Europe) as self-defence. To date
it has not been possible to tell the truth because the mainstream
publishing world, like much of the mainstream media as a whole,
has been frightened of offending Zionism. To offend Zionism
is to invite, among other things, the charge of anti-Semitism
and, because the slaughter of six million Jews was a Gentile
not an Arab or Moslem crime, there is nothing Gentile publishers,
writers, broadcasters, and politicians, fear more than being
accused of anti-Semitism - even when the charge is politically
motivated and false and amounts to blackmail to prevent informed
and honest debate. I say the deteriorating situation in the
Middle East, with global fall-out, is now so dangerous that
the truth has got to be told. In recent years bits of it, the
truth, have appeared in other books. What makes my book different
from all others in substance is that it's the first ever attempt
at a comprehensive telling of the whole historical truth. I
saw it as a project, ambitious in the extreme I know, that somebody
had to take on; and I dared to presume that I was equipped to
have a go because of my experience of the conflict over nearly
40 years and, above all, my empathy with both sides - the fear
of one and the anger, humiliation and despair of the other.
TS:
Your book is different from most, if not all others, in more
than substance. It's a weighty tome in two volumes, but it's
written with great passion and in earthy, everyday language,
which makes an epic but complicated story both very readable
and accessible to all. This suggests you have a particular view
of who you think your book should appeal to…?
AH. I would not have devoted five years of my life to
work on a book with only limited academic appeal. I have written
a book that can and should be read by all concerned and caring
citizens everywhere, including and especially those who would
not normally even think of buying a book on the subject. The
unresolved struggle for Palestine has the potential to take
us all to hell. And that's why I insist that every man, woman
and child on planet Earth has a stake in what is happening in
the Holy Land, and thus a right and a need to
know the truth about the causes of this conflict and how to
stop the countdown to Armageddon. And let me, please, add this.
One of the few men of our time I greatly admire is an American
- Robert McGovern. He was a CIA analyst for 27 years and, on
a daily basis, he briefed seven American Presidents from John
F. Kennedy to George H.W. Bush. Ray is now associated with an
organisation which seeks to advance the cause of "speaking
truth to power". I think there is also a great and urgent
need to speak truth to the people. Which on Middle East
matters is something our governments, particularly those in
Washington and London, are not very good at, to say the very
least… But my book is more than an epic story, which is
thrilling, chilling, and ultimately inspirational, it has important
messages for Gentiles and Jews.
TS: So what is its main message
for Gentiles?
AH. First they must understand that there's a profound
difference between Jews and Judaism on the one hand, and Zionists
and Zionism on the other. Because of the difference it is
perfectly possible to be anti-Zionist - as, in fact, most
Jews were prior to the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust - without
being anti-Semitic (anti all Jews everywhere) in any way, shape
or form, and without being anti-Israel as a state for
some Jews inside its borders as they were on the eve of the
1967 war. Zionism doesn't want the Gentile world to be aware
of the distinction between Judaism and Zionism because, if it
was, Zionism would lose what I call its blackmail card - its
ability to suppress informed and honest debate by asserting
that all criticism of Israel's behaviour, which is sometimes
that of a terrorist state, is a manifestation of anti-Semitism.
TS: You
explain this very well in your book but why do you think it's
so important for Gentiles to have this understanding now?
AH. Anti-Semitism is on the rise again. The irony, and
the tragedy in-the-making, is that this sleeping giant has been
re-awakened primarily by the Zionist state's behaviour - Israel's
appalling self-righteousness, its arrogance of power and its
contempt for international law, UN resolutions and the human
and political rights of others.
TS: You seem to be suggesting
that Gentiles should not blame the Jews who live among them
- the majority of Jews in the world - for what some Jews (those
you describe in the book as "gut-Zionists") are doing
in Israel/Palestine?
AH. I am not suggesting that, I am saying it explicitly.
But there's also a message in my book for the Jews of the world
(diaspora Jews). It is that only they can call and hold Israel
to account and, by so doing, prevent the monster of anti-Semitism
from going on the rampage again and stop the countdown to Armageddon.
How can they do that'? By making common cause with the rational
half (more or less) of their co-religionists in Israel - for
the purpose of de-Zionising Israel, by which I mean turning
it from being a Zionist state into a Jewish state; a state in
which the most powerful force would be the moral principles
of Judaism. Such a state would be one capable of making peace
on terms which the Palestinians (and actually most Arabs and
Moslems everywhere) could accept.
TS: Why do you say that only
the Jews of the world can call and hold Israel to account?
AH. The short answer, for reasons which are documented
in detail and have their necessary global context in my book,
is that nobody else can.
In theory America is the only power on Earth with the ability
to call and hold Israel to account, by which I mean require
Israel to live by the rules of accepted and. civilised international
behaviour and honour its obligations to UN resolutions. The
trouble with America, so to speak, is that what passes for democracy
there is for sale to powerful vested interests, of which the
Zionist lobby, now in shocking and awesome alliance with the
neo-cons and Christian fundamentalism, is one of the most powerful.
Probably second only to the Military Industrial Complex. One
of the themes of my book is the pork-barrel nature of American
politics as it relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict - the dependence
of many of those running for election to Congress and the White
House on Jewish campaign finance and, in close races, Jewish
swing votes. As a consequence of pork-barrel politics in the
U.S., plus today American imperialism as advanced by the neo-cons,
it's already too late for any American administration to
hold Israel to account. Why? Because the settlement facts
gut-Zionism has been allowed to create on the ground in occupied
Palestine are irreversible, making catastrophe for all
inevitable unless… Unless the Jews of the world become
involved to cause Israel to change its ways.
TS: You write with great
sensitivity about what you call the 'predicament' of very many
diaspora Jews. You describe the logic of their thinking, unspeakable
by almost all Jews in public, as going something like this.
"We Jews of the world know we ought to be speaking
out and exerting our influence to cause Israel to change its
policies. But we dare not. Why not? Because there might come
a day when we will need Israel as a refuge of last resort. For
that reason we cannot even think of saying or doing anything
that might give comfort to Israel's enemies and put our ultimate
insurance policy at risk." If that is how most diaspora
Jews do actually think, do you really believe they will rise
to the challenge in the way you suggest they must?
AH: If I believed the answer to that question was definitely
"No", I would not have bothered to write this book.
My minimum hope is that it will encourage diaspora Jews to seriously
debate, among themselves if they insist, why they should exert
their influence on Israel, to change it from a Zionist state
into a Jewish state. But I am not naive. I know that most diaspora
Jews will not even think of playing their necessary part in
changing Israel unless and until they receive the maximum
possible in the way of reassurance about their security in the
mainly Gentile lands of which they are citizens. In other
words, diaspora Jews have got to be given good reason to believe
that they will never have need of Israel as a refuge of last
resort. It follows that the Jews of the world can only do what
they must do with the assistance of the Gentiles. What
assistance?
In my Epilogue, The Jews as the Light Unto Nations, I
call for a New Covenant, not between the Jews and their
God, but between the Jews and the Gentiles. For their part of
the deal the Jews of the world, citizens of many nations, would
commit to making common cause with rational Israelis for the
purpose of de-Zionising Israel. For their part the Gentiles
among whom most Jews live would commit to slaying the monster
of anti-Semitism. An undertaking to let it die in its sleep
would not be enough. There would have to be evidence that a
stake was being driven into the monster's heart.
TS: And
you write of "the very great prize" that awaits the
Jews if they play their part in causing Israel to change its
policies.
AH: I put it this way. If the Jews of the diaspora can
summon up the will and the courage to make common cause with
the forces of reason in Israel before it's too late for us all,
a very great prize awaits them. By demonstrating that right
can triumph over might, and that there is a place for morality
in politics, they would become the Light Unto Nations. It
is a prize available to no other people because of the uniqueness
of the suffering of the Jews. Perhaps that is the real point
of the idea of the Jews as Chosen People... Chosen to endure
unique suffering and, having endured it, to show the rest of
us that creating a better and more just world is not a mission
impossible. In that context, I say, Zionism is a Great Betrayal
of all our hopes, not just those of the Jews.
TS:
You have deconstructed, demolished,
Zionist mythology, but do I detect underneath it all some sympathy
for Zionism, even for what you call gut-Zionism?
AH.That's
very nearly a most perceptive question! I'll respond in two
ways.
I
do not blame the Zionist lobby in America for exercising its
awesome influence in a way that has contributed to the subversion
of what passes for democracy. I blame America's pork-barrel
politicians including presidents. They always had a choice.
I mean that they did not have to do the bidding of the
Zionist lobby, especially when doing it was obviously not in
America's longer term and best interests. They chose
to do Zionism's bidding to serve their own short-term political
interests and those of their parties. When pressed in private
American politicians seek to excuse themselves by saying that
it was, is, "political suicide" to oppose the Zionist
lobby. For the few brave ones who did, it was; but that doesn't
change the fact that Congressmen and women, and presidents,
always had a choice - doing Zionism's bidding to protect their
own interests and those of their parties or putting America's
best interests first.
It's
mainly because American politicians including presidents could
not say "No" to Zionism at critical moments that the
Middle East is in such a mess today, with terrifying and predictable
consequences for all of us if a peaceful resolution of the Palestine
problem - one that provides the Palestinians with an acceptable
minimum of justice - remains beyond the reach of diplomacy.
TS:
You really do believe that a peaceful
resolution of the Palestine problem is the key to averting a
catastrophe for all?
AH. Yes. In the Prologue to the book, which is
titled Waiting for the Apocalypse, I make the point that
if was possible for an American President to wave a magic wand
and have Israel back behind its borders as they were on the
eve of the 1967 war, with a Palestinian state in existence on
the land from which Israel had withdrawn in accordance with
the letter and spirit of Security Council Resolution 242 of
the same year, and with Jerusalem the capital of Israel and
Palestine, the U.S. would have, overnight (with one wave of
the magic wand), the respect, support and friendship of not
less than 95 percent of all Arabs and about the same percentage
of Moslems everywhere. And that would create the environment
in which Arab and other Moslem terrorism could be defeated
by political means. (The idea that it can be defeated by
military means is a form of madness, of the kind that prevails
in the White House and Number Ten Downing Street. In my book
I explain in a very few words - 147 to be precise - how terrorism
can be defeated),
But
let me return directly to your question about sympathy for Zionism…
I don't have any sympathy for it, but, I do understand why,
because of the Jewish experience of persecution which climaxed
with the genocide of the Nazi holocaust, Zionism felt compelled
to lie in public to justify what had to be done to create the
modern state of Israel and then to justify its behaviour. I
am now in the deepest primordial water but, noting that what
I am about to say has its complete context in my book, I'll
attempt to explain what I mean. If Zionism had been honest it
would have made a public statement after the Nazi holocaust
along something like the following lines.
Jews
can never again trust Gentiles. We take it as a given that Jews
will always be hated and that the monster of anti-Semitism will
go on the rampage again. The Zionist state will exist to be
the refuge of last resort for Jews everywhere and thus an insurance
policy to guarantee the survival of the Jewish people. Zionism
will do whatever if takes to secure and maintain this guarantee,
and if what we do causes our state to be regarded as a pariah
by the rest of the world, well, the rest of the world can go
to hell!
That
truth could not be told because telling it would have been to
admit, even to proclaim, that Zionism had no time or need for,
and was estranged from, the moral principles and teachings of
Judaism. And that might very well have made it impossible for
the majority of the world's Jews to support Zionism in action
after the birth of modern Israel, Zionism's child. Unable to
tell the truth, Zionism had to lie to justify Israel's arrogance
of power and to have Israeli aggression perceived in
the Judeo-Christian world as self-defence. The lie being
that Israel was in danger of annihilation. As I reveal
in my book, it never was - except in Arab rhetoric, which
made Zionism's propaganda lie appear to be truth.
So
while I don't have any sympathy for Zionism because, in action,
it's a monster, as anti-Zionist Jews always feared it would
be, I do understand, and invite readers to understand, where
it comes from. In much the same way as I understand, and invite
readers to understand, where the monster of violent Moslem fundamentalism
comes from.
TS:
How will you respond to the accusation,
if it's made, that you and your book are anti-Semitic?
AH. Nobody of sound mind could read my book and
make such an accusation. This book is the opposite of anti-Semitic.
Stripped down to its absolute essence, it's the call of a concerned
and caring goy, me, for the Jews to become the light
unto nations, not least because the rest of us need them to
be. If such an accusation is made, it will be politically motivated,
malicious and for the purpose of smearing author and book, in
the expectation that people will prove that they are
not anti-Semitic by not buying the book. The very last thing
that anybody who accuses me of anti-Semitism will want is informed
and honest debate of the kind the book was written to make possible.
And
I don't mind anybody knowing what I'll do if I am accused
of anti-Semitism. I'll demand a retraction with an apology.
And if I do not receive satisfaction on that account, I will
sue. (There is available with the Press Release a feature article
I have written, THE MONSTER OF ANTI-SEMITISM - HOW TO DESTROY
IT. In advance of the book itself, it highlights the difference
between Judaism and Zionism and therefore why it is perfectly
possible to be passionately anti-Zionist without being in any
way, shape or form anti-Semitic; and without being anti-Israel
as a state for some Jews inside its borders as they were on
the eve of the 1967 war, with Jerusalem an open City and the
capital of two states, Israel and Palestine).
TS:
In the Prologue you say you are
aware that "much of this book could cause pain and possibly
distress to very many Jews."
AH.
It could not be otherwise because I am asking diaspora Jews,
and the rational half (more or less) of Israeli Jews, to consider
the proposition that almost everything they have been conditioned
to believe about what has kept the conflict going is part and
parcel of one big Zionist propaganda lie - a lie effectively
endorsed by the political establishments of the Judeo-Christian
world and, more by default than design, by the mainstream media.
Even more troubling for mainstream Jewish readers (i.e. not
those who've always been opposed to Zionism and even the existence
of a state for Jews) is that, through the words of some
very courageous Jews, the book is asking them to recognise that
their silence on the matter of Israel's behaviour is, effectively,
"complicity" in Zionism's crimes and its preference
for land without peace; and that they are standing idly by while
Zionism demolishes the moral foundations of Judaism.
When
I put the complicity point to a Jewish Englishman who is a member
of group which is committed to a genuine two-state solution
based on an acceptable minimum of justice for the Palestinians,
he said to me: "In principle the complicity point is a
fair one, but Jews can't actually be complicit if they are unaware
that Zionism's version of history is a propaganda lie."
I replied: "That, too, is a fair point. But they will be
complicit if, knowing the truth, they remain silent."
But
also in the Prologue I tell all readers that I do, in fact,
work my way to an uplifting conclusion, one that should be a
source of comfort, hope and inspiration for Jewish readers especially.
This is my way of signalling my belief, set down in the Epilogue,
that the Jews are still uniquely placed to be the Light Unto
Nations.
TS:
Is there comfort for Arabs in your book?
AH. It depends on which Arabs we are talking about.
With few if any exceptions, the regimes and ruling elites of
the existing Arab Order - corrupt, repressive and crumbling
- will have the same feelings for my book as Zionists. They
will hate it and, probably, will seek to suppress it and discussion
and debate about its content. (If they do, they will be making
common cause with Zionism!) Why? Because the book tells
all of the knowable and uncomfortable truth, not just selected
bits of it. And a part of the complete and comprehensive
truth confirms the view the Arab masses have of their regimes
- that, mainly because of their divisions, they are impotent
and are doing, more by default than design, and in order to
survive a little longer, the bidding of America-and-Zionism.
As I say in the book, the main difference between Zionism's
leaders and the regimes of the existing Arab order is that the
former always knew how to play the cards they had been dealt,
the latter (with the main exception of Saudi Arabia's King Feisal)
never did. And still don't.
But
for "the Arabs" generally speaking, there is, or so
I have been told, great comfort in my book. One explanation
of why was given to me by the first Arab to read my manuscript.
This man, long resident in the UK as a British citizen, said
to me, "With this book you have returned to us Arabs our
history." He meant and went on to say that for Arabs living
in the Judeo-Christian world, and because Zionism had succeeded
in getting its version of history accepted as truth by the mainstream
media of this world, Arab history, effectively, had been hi-jacked
by Zionism. And real history for the Arab masses had been suppressed
by their regimes. This man also said: "Your book will make
all Arabs who read it feel better. I mean that they will be
comforted by the knowledge that there is at last an outsider,
you, who understands the cause of their anger, humiliation and
despair and who can communicate why they feel as they do to
the outside world."
TS:
Given that your book is about the longest running conflict in
all of human history and comes to grips with all aspects of
it, regional and global, why did you choose ZIONISM: THE REAL
ENEMY OF THE JEWS for the title - a title that could suggest
your book is much more narrowly focused than it actually is
AH.
As the jacket text says, the title reflects, in seven words,
two terrifying truths of our time. The first is that anti-Semitism
is on the rise again. The second is that a prime cause of the
re-awakening of this sleeping giant is the behaviour of Zionism's
child, Israel. I also saw this particular title as a way of
making by obvious implication a dramatic and important statement.
Generally speaking, the Judeo-Christian world has been conditioned
by Zionism to believe that the enemy of "the Jews"
is "the Arabs". That has never, ever, been the case.
Almost all Arabs have always been aware that the Zionism they
hate is not synonymous with "the Jews." In that context
I wanted a way of saying to potential readers - "You
may think that the Arabs are the real enemy of the Jews but,
actually, they are not. Zionism is."
TS:
Are you concerned that the very length of your book - 1,200
pages in two volumes - will put off some and perhaps many potential
readers, especially those you are most keen to reach out to
- those you describe as so-called ordinary folk who would not
normally even think of buying a book on the subject?
AH.
Not too much because I don't share the view of mainstream publishing
that so-called ordinary folk cannot be engaged in any serious
way about issues that really matter. I think, have always thought,
that most people of most nations are not nearly as indifferent
to the great issues of our time as they are assumed to be by
our politicians and our mainstream media and publishers. What
must people are, I think, is shockingly under-informed. The
difference between today and yesterday is that citizens are
becoming aware of how much better informed they could be. And
actually would be if the mainstream media was not hell bent
on dumbing down.
And
I subscribe to Noam Chomsky's view. He said that 9/11 had made
only half the people of America mad (meaning insane),
and that the other half were asking - Why, really, did it happen?
I think it's not unreasonable to assume that, after 7/7, a lot
of British people are asking the same question. My book will
assist them to answer it for themselves..
I
could also adapt the line that comedians are fond of - it's
not the jokes that are so funny, "it's the way I tell 'em."
I was never less than completely aware that if I was to succeed
in reaching out to so-called ordinary folk, the way I told the
story would be as important as the story itself. And that's
why my epic book is written more in the style of a novel than
a conventional historical work, and in everyday, earthy, conversational
language. I write, for example, "If effect Ben-Gurion was
telling President Eisenhower to get stuffed." And from
the feedback I am getting from so-called ordinary folk who have
read or are reading an advance copy of the book, this approach
seems to be going down well. People who would not normally even
think of reading an apparently heavyweight book on the subject
are telling me that it's very easy to read and a "page-turner."
One of my test readers, a gentleman in his sixties, even said
the book had made reading a pleasure for the first time in many
years.
TS:
Alan, you are British, your book
begins its public life here in Britain, I have to ask you, what's
your take on Prime Minister Blair?
AH.
I describe him in the book as being "as self-righteous
as any Zionist".
For
associating himself with an unnecessary, illegal and counter-productive
invasion of Iraq - a war for which the prime pushers were Zionists
in association with America's neo-cons - I think it is highly
likely that Mr. Blair will go down in history as the most dangerously
deluded of all British prime ministers. On the British 0 to
10 scale of stupidity in relation to the Middle East, I'd put
Eden at 10 and Blair at 11.
I
also think that, post 7/7, Mr. Blair was being devilishly disingenuous
when he asserted that the bombings were a manifestation of a
problem that is religious in origin. It is certainly
true that violent Moslem fundamentalists are using and abusing
Islam every bit as much as gut-Zionists have used and abused
Judaism, but the roots of the problem are political not
religious, with the deepest root of all being the unresolved
problem of Palestine. Mr. Blair can't admit that the best and
most effective way to deal with Moslem terrorism is by addressing
the unresolved political problems which energise and sustain
it because he knows that, as things are, there's not a snowball's
chance in hell of a political solution to the problem of Palestine.
TS:
You've written your book to make
possible "the first ever informed and honest debate about
who must do what and why if there's to be a peaceful resolution
of the Palestine problem." Why do you think the debate
for which you call is now so urgent and your book so timely?
AH. My overall view is that unless debate can
be refocused - to enable debate to take place on something other
than Zionism's terms - diplomacy is going nowhere because
it has nowhere to go. This because Sharon's decision to
withdraw from Gaza was not for peace, but to defuse the demographic
time-bomb of occupation, and to consolidate the Zionist state's
hold on about 58 percent of the West Bank and, effectively,
control of about 82 percent of it. This is a recipe for catastrophe
- for us all, and which, no doubt, will encourage the unleashing
of the twin monsters of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. I wrote
my book to assist the destruction of both.
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